Hi,

Want to ask a few questions before I play my first game.

1. During the conquer/mobiize order do you only get to place 1 activation token or can you place as many as you want?

2. With tilte cards, if you use the order to acquire one do you just put at least one influence on it and then it becomes yours? Then, if another player puts more tokens on it it becomes theirs (providing they played the order card)? Thus, each time someone aquires it it costs more every time?

3. With the optional rules, why would you want destroy a destrucbale location? Would it just be to stop an enemy getting the benefits or do you only get the beneift if you destroy it? Also, one of the encounters say it counts as a Rune, do you have to place rune tokens (one rune and one false) for this?

4. One of the order cards allows you to get benefits from development tokens. Do you get beneifts from ALL tokens you have placed on the board or just one that you select?

Thanks peeps.

monk said:

You get ONE activation with those orders. That means you activate 1 area by placing 1 token, and move into that area.

However, if your Mobilize order is the highest number you've played so far that year, you also get the Supremacy bonus, which lets you activate a second area after you are done with the first action. The only catch is that you can only have 1 battle, but it could be either the first or the second.

monk said:

Correct. Thus, putting a lot on it to start makes it harder to steal; if you put 3 influence on it, if someone wants to steal it, they would have to spend at least 4. However, note this also works both ways. If later you want to protect the title, YOU have to spend more than is already on it, also; you can't just "add to it".

Also, since you've indicated you haven't played yet, it's probably worth noting (and I hope it's not a spoiler, but sometimes it's important to know), there are two Tactics Cards called "Political Control" which let you take a Title card for free, discarding all the influence on it. Just keep that in mind

monk said:

Primarily you would destroy them if you can't hold the area and don't want your enemy to get the benefits. If you are safe with the area, you wouldn't want to.

As for the Dragon Throne token, no, you do not place rune tokens on the board; the Dragon Throne itself serves that purpose - it counts as a rune for victory purposes. However, it's worth noting, it is NOT considered a rune for other purposes, such as the Lord Commander of the Warriors' Guild title card, and you can also put actual rune tokens on that area later as well (which means that the area COULD be worth 2 runes if you have the Dragon Throne AND a real rune there).

monk said:

You get the benefits of all the development tokens that you already have on the board.

Hope this helps

monk said:

You only get to place one Activation Token in a single hex, and then move units to that hex. Units that cannot legally reach the chosen hex are not allowed to move at all. In the specific case of Mobilize, the supremacy ability allows you to resolve the card a second time, which means that you may place a second Activation Token in a second hex and repeat the same process assuming you qualify for its supremacy bonus (ie: Mobilize is the highest-numbered Order Card you have played this year at the time you play it.) There's also the condition that only one of these two moves can be used to start a fight - note that "attacking" an empty enemy hex (such as a homeland hex or a fortress with no units) still counts as a battle for this purpose.

Strategize allows you to move potentially ALL your units AND heroes (remember, heroes are not units) without any Activation Tokens being placed, but each can only move one hex subject to all other movement restrictions. (ie: no moving out of an activated hex, etc.)

monk said:

Correct. You can even "buy it back" from yourself if you want to bump up the influence price without losing it. Keep in mind that you have to pay the FULL new price to do this, you don't get a discount for the influence tokens currently on the title which you spent previously.

monk said:

Generally you would destroy a destructible location to prevent an opponent from taking it later. Perhaps you made a reckless advance into enemy territory and want to destroy this thing because you won't be able to hold the hex for yourself. Or perhaps you just want to thumb your nose at someone pressing for your long-held advantage. As for the rune one, I'm assuming you mean the Dragon Throne. The answer is no, you don't place rune tokens on the map because of the throne. The throne itself counts as a rune for victory conditions as long as you control it. You can even put another rune token, real or fake, (gained by other means) in the hex with the throne. Note that you cannot move the throne as you can normal rune tokens with that swapping Order (I'm blanking on its name right now.)

monk said:

I believe you get the benefits of all developments except those which have their own special rules (ie: the human Defense bonus is always active when the fortress is attacked and doesn't do anything in particular when you play this Order.) AFTER you have gained all applicable benefits, you may build one new development, assuming you have the resources and a fortress with an open slot.

Steve-O said:

For what it's worth, it's the #8 Fortify order that does that (in addition to letting you build/repair strongholds).

And it should be noted for the OP that you CAN use this to "swap" a rune with an empty area, essentially letting you move it from one area to another, as long as you control both areas. This is usually more used in Epic games where there are no fake runes, but it could be used in either.

Steve-O said:

Again, for what it's worth, this is true of all the "defensive" modules; every race has their own, but they are passive-use modules that only come into play when the stronghold is attacked. They don't "do" anything during future Harvest supremacy.

Also, not to inject house rules or anything, but one thing my group has done is made a house rule that Bountiful Harvest lets you collect from existing developments, too. I don't typically use a lot of house rules, but we found that without that, we were rarely buying anything other than Defensive Developments, since in a typical game Harvest doesn't get used very often.